How to Make an Artistic Calendar

Make a Calendar Using Your Original Artwork

My husband wants to create a calendar out of his drawings and sell them.

Here is the problem: we don't know where to begin, such as, what type of paper he should draw on, can we put his drawings on a computer and print off of that and what type of programs will we need?

Any suggestions on what to do to get started would be helpful.

Thank you,

Michelle

First decide where you will sell your calendars, the size, and how many you will need to print at the start.

If your husband has already sold his artwork or is represented by a gallery, it is relatively safe to get 100 or so calendars printed up. Go to Print Industry; fill in their simple quote form for calendars and find out how much they will cost. The larger the run you request, the lower your unit cost will be.

If this is a brand new field for you and/or you don't have a lot of start-up capital, you're better off producing the calendar yourself. You can start out printing just a few, see how they sell and go from there.

For those new to graphics, two of the greeting card software programs I recommend are American Greetings CreataCard and Print Shop; both can produce printable calendars.

More experienced users can enjoy the photo editing and manipulation features of Photoshop or it's less expensive cousin, Photoshop Elements, although these programs lack a lot of the built-in calendar features that the other programs provide.

CreataCard has been discontinued, although you might still be able to pick up a copy on eBay.

You can also buy stand alone calendar software, but the greeting card programs are much more versatile and a much better buy.

Your format can be anything up to 8 1/2" by 11", using the printable calendar programs I recommend. This means you can make a nice wall calendar which, when hung, will measure 17 inches tall, 11 inches wide (using landscape orientation) or 22 inches tall and 8 1/2 wide (using portrait orientation).

You will need a good quality color printer and a scanner. Read Digital Tools for information about scanners and Printers for Graphics Crafts for information on printers.

Virtually any paper, or fabric for that matter, can be scanned. Experiment with your scanner and different papers until you get a look you like. Paper textures will show up on the scan, which can give a very nice effect.

As far as paper to produce your calendar on, that's another artistic decision. Just be sure the paper is thick and opaque enough that no ink will show through from one side to the other.

I'll give paper weights in grams (which are comparable across all paper categories) but if the labels give weight only in pounds, refer to the conversion chart on the How to Choose the Right Paper for Your Craft Project page of the website.

Use at least 120 gram paper for the inside pages. Using a heavier weight, say 225 gram, for the covers is optional. You can also laminate the covers for a glossy effect.

As far as printing your own calendar, I recommend Print Shop for your printable calendar software.

Print Shop has a flexible but very user-friendly calendar software module. Just select a calendar format you like, choose the year and go to work! [ Note the numbers beside each calendar page. They go from 1 to 26 - that's a front and back cover plus 2 pages for each month. Just click on the little yellow arrows bottom left to go forward or back a page. ]

You will click on and erase the artwork they have as the top page for each month; scan in your drawing or Insert>Import a digital photo of it; size it; perhaps enhance it using the Photo Tools; and go to the next page. Holidays will be put in automatically if you like.

When you're happy with your printable calendar, just press print. Print Shop does all the formatting for double-sided printing. It will walk you through a test to determine how your printer works and you're done!

Take your finished calendars to your local office center and have them spiral bound. You may also want to have the covers laminated, but it's not necessary.

One note here: If you go with some other size than the standard 8 1/2 by 11, check first that your office center will be able to bind it attractively. With a non-standard size, the holes may notch the outer edges.

If you're new to computer graphics, you've chosen a rather complex project to start with. Notice I didn't say difficult; it's just that there are a lot of steps to creating a calendar, especially a customized one. The right calendar software will help a lot.

But if you get stuck or frustrated at some point, please feel free to write again.

For more articles containing craft ideas for your computer, please visit Computer Crafting.